Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – The melt continued through the early part of the week. You can see the snowmobile tracks looking toward beach one are down to sand in places.Sunday, January 21st, 2018 – On Sunday I met this couple out enjoying the warm weather venturing out on the ice berms. It’s probably safe enough, but I don’t think I’d do this myself after a couple of days of warm weather we’ve had.Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018 – The ice berms are melting and you can see open water out in the distance looking towards Collingwood and Blue Mountain.Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018 – By Tuesday the beach was almost entirely sand as you can see from this picture taken near 13th street looking across the beach.Wednesday, January 24th, 2018 – Tuesday night, we had a flash freeze, and the meltwater that was pooling on top of the ice near shore froze solid. For the first time this year, it was easier to walk 100 yards off the beach than on the beach. This picture was taken looking at condos near 12th street from out on the ice. You can see where ice has been leaving near the shoreline in the foreground.
Wednesday, January 24th, 2018 – It was glare ice in places, but blowing snow and ice crystals while the ice was freezing created a sandpaper effect make it quite pleasant to walk out on the ice. The effect as you above is this “highway” between ice berms along the shore to the left and the larger field of ice berms to the right toward the water. This is about 100 yards out from shore but I think it is plenty safe.
Wednesday, January 24th, 2018 – Looking towards a sandy beach from out on the ice. There’s not much left of the ice berms along the shore side of the ice highway. It’s so much easier to walk along the ice than snow or snowmobile tracks.Thursday, January 25th, 2018 – On Thursday the ice was still awesome to walk on. There was a wide-open channel all the way from 18th street down to the east of the beach one pavilion about 100 yards out from shore. I met a few other people out on the ice checking out this interesting phenomenon.Thursday, January 25th, 2018 – this picture taken from out on the ice looking towards the shuttered home at the east end of Shore Lane between beach 2 and 3.Friday, January 26th, 2018 – Back to stupid warm temperatures. Unfortunately, walking out on the ice today is not an option. What a difference a day makes. You can see the water from melting ice and snow literally running down the beach creating channels in the sand.Friday, January 26th, 2018 – Looking out on the ice. The open channel I was walking down yesterday is still there. It’s probably still safe enough, but there would be slush on the surface and I didn’t want to venture out and get my feet wet.Friday, January 26th, 2018 – Down near beach one where there is a larger expanse of sand the beach is almost entirely dry. Taken by the volleyball nets on the western boardwalk.Saturday, January 27th, 2018 – Another unseasonably warm day on Saturday. The picture above was taken from Shore Lane and 13th street looking towards the water. A little slushy, but the footpaths from the beach are passable.Saturday, January 27th, 2018 – Out in the distance most of the big bodies of floating ice have dissolved into smaller floating chunks.
